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Another ambassa

*

a cloak, he staid so long at the duke's court, that the emperor took umbrage at it; which was the occasion, as we suppose, of what followed after, viz. that under pretence of a murder by him committed, his trial was dispatched in two days, and his head struck off in the dead of the night. The king applying to all the princes of Christendom, and even to the duke himself, to demand satisfaction, Taverna came to the court of France with a long counterfeit story, had his audience at the morning-council, where, for the support of his cause, he made a plausible harangue, concluding, that his master had never looked upon this Merveille for any other than a private gentleman, and his own subject, who came to Milan only about his own affairs, and had never lived there in any other character; absolutely deny, ing he had ever heard that he was one of the king's houshold, or so much as known to his majesty, so far was he from taking him for an ambassador. The king, in his turn, urging several objections and questions to him, and sifting him every way, gravelled him at last, in the circumstance of the execution being performed in the night, as it were by stealth. To this the poor man, being confounded, made answer, in order to show his complaisance, That, out of respect to his majesty, the duke would have been very sorry that such an execution should have been performed in the day-time. Any one may imagine how he was reprimanded when he came home, for having so grossly prevaricated with a prince of so nice a discernment as king Francis.

Pope Julius II. having sent an ambassador to the dor caught king of England to animate him against king Francis, in a mis the ambassador, having had his audience, and the king, in his answer observing the difficulties that VIII. king would attend the making such preparations as would be absolutely necessary to cope with so powerful a king, and mentioning some reasons, the ambassador

Henry

of Eng

land.

Bellay's Memoirs, lib. iv. fol. 153, &c. Edit. of Paris, 1573.

absurdly replied, That he himself had also considered them, and had indeed mentioned them to the Pope. This speech, so different from his errand, which was to push a war, gave the king of England the first glimpse of a conjecture, which was afterwards verified, that the said ambassador was in his heart a friend to France; of which the king of England having advertised the pope, his estate was confiscated, and he had like to have suffered death.

CHAPTER X.

Of Readiness or Slowness in Speech.
Onc ne furent à tous toutes graces données.

THUS we see, as to the gift of eloquence, some
have a facility and readiness of speech, and that
which is termed a quick delivery, so fluent, that they
are never at a pause; and others there are, slow of
speech, who never utter a sentence but what has
been laboured and premeditated.

As the diversions and exercises of the ladies are so regulated, as to make the best display of their greatest beauty, so in these two different advantages of eloquence, of which the preachers and lawyers of our age seem to be the chief professors, if my opinion was to be taken, I should think the slow speaker The slow would be more proper for the pulpit, and the other speaker t for the bar; because the preacher's function allows preacher.

* Erasmus, in a book of his called Lingua, mentions this fact, as a thing that happened while he was in England. He says, that, being detected in conversation with the French ambassador by night, he was committed to prison, all his estate confiscated, and that, if he had fallen into the hands of Julius, he would scarce have escaped with his life. But the consequence of this lapsus lingua was, that the king, who, perhaps, by putting off the affair, might have composed the difference, hastened the war. Operum Erasmi, in Folio, printed at Leyden, 1703, tom, iv. col. 684.

to be a

one to be

cate.

him as much time as he pleases to prepare himself; and, besides, his is one continued thread of disThe ready course, without intermission; whereas, it is the adan advo- vocate's interest to enter the lists extempore, and the unexpected answers of the adverse party throw him off his bias, so that he is immediately forced to strike into a new path. Yet, at the interview betwixt pope Clement and king Francis, at Marseilles, it happened quite contrary, that M. Poyet, a man who had been bred up all his life to the bar, and was in high repute, being commissioned to make the harangue to the pope, and having so long studied it before-hand, that, it is said, he brought it quite ready with him from Paris; the pope, on the very day that it was to be spoken, lest he should intend to say something which might disgust the ambassadors of the other princes that were about him, sent the king a topic which he thought fittest both for the time and place, but such a topic as was quite different from that which Monsieur Poyet had taken so much pains about; so that the speech he had prepared remained of no use, and he was forced, that very instant, to set about another; but, finding himself incapable of forming it, the cardinal de Bellay was constrained to take that charge upon him. The pleader's province is more difficult than that of the preacher; and yet, in my opinion, we find more passable pleaders than preachers, at least in France. It seems that it is the nature of wit to operate speedily, and on a sudden; whereas the operation of judgment is deliberate and slow. But it is as strange for a man to be totally silent for want of leisure to prepare his speech, as it is for another to speak never the better though he had leisure.

Severus
Cassius

It is said of Severus Cassius,* that he spoke best spoke best without having thought of the subject beforehand; that he was more indebted to his fortune than to his

without

*Seneca's Epitome Controversiarum. Pref, lib. iii. p. 274. Edition at Geneva, anno 1626.

tion.

diligence; that he spoke best when he was angered; preparaand that his adversaries were afraid to provoke him, lest his indignation should give a double edge to his eloquence. I know by experience, that sort of genius which is so averse to intense and painful premeditation, if it does not operate briskly and freely, performs nothing to the purpose. We say of some

works, that they stink of oil, and the lamp, by reason of a certain harshness and roughness, from the labour with which they were composed. But besides this, the solicitude of performing well, and the effort of the mind too far strained, and too intent upon its undertaking, break the chain of thought, and hinder its progress, as is the case of water, which, being pressed by its force and quantity, hardly passes out of the neck of a full bottle, when just opened. In that sort of genius of which I have been speaking, there is this also observable, that it does not like to be disordered and stimulated with such strong passions as the wrath of Cassius (for such an impulse would be too rough), it likes not to be shocked, but solicited; and had rather be warmed and roused by sudden and accidental occasions that are foreign to the point. If it be left to itself, it only flags and languishes; agitation gives it grace and vigour. I do not like to be master of myself, and am more under the dominion of chance. Occasion, company, and even the rising and falling of my voice, extract more from my imagination, than I can find in it when I sound it and speculate by myself. Consequently, I speak better than I write, if either was to be preferred, where neither is worth any thing. This also befalls me, that I am absent from myself, and that chance brings me to myself, more than any inspection into my own judgment. I shall throw out a witticism, when I write, which I may think very fine and delicate, others dull and lifeless; but, to speak freely, every one talks thus of himself according to his talent. For my part, I am frequently so bewildered, that I know not what I am about to say,

and a stranger finds it out before me. Were I to make a razure as oft as this befalls me, I should have nothing at all to say; but chance will at another time shew it to me, as plain as the sun at noon-day, and make me wonder how I came to hesitate.

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CHAPTER XI.

Of Prognostications.

As for oracles, it is certain that they began to lose their credit long before the birth of JESUS CHRIST ; for we read that Cicero was at a loss to know the reason of it, by his saying, "How comes it to pass "that the oracles at Delphos are not only now silent, "but have been so for a good while, insomuch that "nothing is more despised?" But as to the other prognostics that were derived from the anatomy of the beasts at the sacrifices, to which Plato, in some measure, ascribes the natural constitution of the intestines of these beasts; as to the cluttering motion of chickens with their feet, the flying of birds: (Aves quasdam, rerum augurandarum causa natas esse putamus. i. e. We think some sort of birds be created purposely for the sake of augury.) Claps of thunder, the winding of rivers, (Multa cernunt aruspices; multa augures provident; multa oraculis declarantur; multa vaticinationibus ; multa somniis; multa portentis ; i. e. Soothsayers and augurs conjecture and foresee many things, and many things are foretold in oracles, divination, dreams, and prodigies.) And as to others of the like nature, upon which the ancients grounded most of their undertakings, whether public or private, our religion has to

*Cic. de Divinatione, lib. i. cap. 52.
+ Cic. de Natura Deorum, lib. ii. cap. 64.

+ Ibid. cap. 65.

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